FTV: Gary T. Revisited
At the end of 2024, I took some time to repay a long overdue debt. Over the last decade, Gary Tanin from Daystorm Music in Milwaukee has been kind enough to send me music from a host of artists he has worked with. Corresponding via email, I got to know a bit about Gary and his work as a producer, but I didn’t know much about his personal history. That is until I read an article from Milwaukee’s alternative paper Shepherd Express written by Gary’s old friend, David Luhressen. This provided me an opening to share more about someone whose name has appeared many times in this space. For reference, you can find the article From the Vaults: Gary Tanin archived at www.woas-fm.org (it was originally posted on 12-25-24).
While I knew more about his more recent projects, it was interesting to learn how he got started in the business to begin with. As I stated in the 2024 FTV, a fifteen year old with dreams of being involved in the music industry can find a way to do just that. In Gary’s case, it involved taking a bus into downtown Milwaukee to visit a studio owned by Elmo Griffin. As Luhressen pointed out, the sheer act of visiting a black owned recording studio during an ongoing riot took a certain amount of courage on young Gary Tanin’s part. Everybody has to start somewhere and thus began Gary’s 55 year career / love affair with music.
As I read about some of his first projects, it dawned on me the best place to score a copy of one of his earliest albums was from Gary himself. I inquired if he could tell me where to obtain a copy of an album he recorded in 1973 called Otto and The Elevators. Gary said, “I only have LPs left but I can also burn you a CD of the 40th anniversary reissue of Otto from 2013.” When the package arrived, I got two more pleasant surprises: Gary also included a copy of two other CDs he had worked on. One was his collaboration with Jerry Harrison (1994’s Sublime Nation) and the other was a record with keyboard player Roger Powell (fossil poets from 2006). Harrison’s name should be familiar from his work with Talking Heads and Powell is Todd Rundgren’s longtime keys player. I promised to give all three a thorough listening and decided it might be fun to delve a little deeper into all of them..
Prior to recording Otto and the Elevators, Gary had taken a position working at Arco Studios. He was asked to work on a label specifically for local artists. He was only 17 when he began working at Arco and the new label was called Vera after his mother’s name. Tanin recorded tracks at Arco for his first solo album Love Changes All (1972). He got to work with many musicians at Arco who would also be instrumental in recording the concept album that would be called Otto and the Elevators.
Upon listening to Otto, the first track (Elevator Operator) from Side One (I am sorry, the jacket has the track lists labeled ‘Upside’ and ‘Downside’) jumped out at me. Knowing the 1973 vintage, it struck me that, “Wow, this sounds like a track that could have been influenced by Leon Russel’s style! Or perhaps Leon borrowed Gary’s schtick.” No, I don’t think either Gary or Leon ‘borrowed’ anything from each other. Leon was born in 1942, got his start in the music business in 1956. Russell had fourteen years working as a session musician, solo artist, and record executive under his belt when he released his first solo album (Leon Russell) in 1970. Leon was another example of an artist laying a lot of the groundwork over time to become an ‘overnight sensation’ at the age of 28. Any comparison between Gary and Leon can be explained simply as an independent organic thing that happens when musicians are developing their own style. To me, the Otto album shows a high degree of maturity in Gary’s work even at his young age.
The ‘Upside’ and ‘Downside’ of the album segues from honky tonk piano, melodic ballads, funk, and even a little country thing on the closer Can You Believe Me. Up Down Lovin’ features wonderfully crafted keyboard work with a true ‘up and down’ movement percolating in the background – a perfect match to the elevator imagery in the lyrics. Motorhead has a bounce and pop to it with a polka beat balanced by Blood, Sweat, and Tears style horn work. Tracks Love Me For Tonight, I Love You So Much, and I’ll Still Be Here (the last two are found on the ‘Downside’) are ballads Dennis DeYoung would have been proud to have on any Styx album.
The ‘Upside’ wraps with Boss Rat, a snappy dose of urban funk with sax and horn work to match Gary’s funky vocal delivery. The opening ‘Downside’ track, Help Me, rocks with pounding piano with built in ‘pauses’ featuring a nifty guitar lick. The keyboard, guitar, and drumming drive the whole song forward with head nodding, foot-tapping ferocity. When We Were Happy is kind of campy. It creates a mood not unlike what Paul McCartney was reaching for with tracks like When I’m Sixty-Four. The vocals, strings, flute, and pace of I’ll Still Be Here set a dreamy mood that almost lulls you to sleep… just before the countryfied Can You Believe Me takes us off into the sunset. Otto and the Elevators is one of those albums that makes it impossible to cherry pick favorite tracks – once I got started, I couldn’t stop listening until the end.
The first thing I noticed reading through the liner notes for Sublime Nation was the host of familiar names Jerry Harrison and Gary had assembled to record this album. Harrison, of course, is well known as being a member of Talking Heads. Keyboard player T. Lavitz was an integral member of Dixie Dregs and drummer Victor De Lorenzo was a former member of the musically adventurous Milwaukee band The Violent Femmes. More keyboard help was provided by Roger Powel (Todd Rundgren & Utopia) and Jr. Brantley (Jimmy Vaughn Band). The rest of the recording unit was rounded out by guitarists Greg Koch and Scott Finch with organ and Roland D50 synthesizer work by Jef Eaton (who also contributed to the Otto and the Elevators LP). Gary Tanin is given credits for ‘songwriting, vocals, sequencing, and keyboards’ as he was on Otto and the Elevators. I knew about Gary’s keyboard and sequencing background but both of these albums prove he is also a vocalist of immense talent .
Sublime Nation came out in 1994 and was an ambitious project. According to a Multimusica U.S.A. VP and A&R rep, “Multimusica U.S.A. began as an interactive Multimedia developer in 1990. We had wild visions of interactive musical CD-ROM titles (i.e. Sugar Plums) dancing in our heads. Since those frontier days, we have seen the likes of Todd Rundgren go interactive, David Bowie with Jump, Prince with Prince Interactive, and Peter Gabriel with the critically acclaimed Xplora CD-1. With fully immersive Virtual Reality technologies just around the corner, we at MultiMusica U.S.A. felt it would be way cool to release a flagship product that was truly traditional: A digital Audio CD. Enjoy!”
With 15 tracks, it would be difficult at this point to do a proper review of all the tracks so we will make it a point to spin this album many times on WOAS-FM 91.5. That way, you don’t have to take my word for what a great album it is – you can hear it yourself. I will say that the songs are masterfully arranged and they cross many stylistic boundaries. Even with the 30 plus years that have passed since it was released, Sublime Nation sounds as fresh today as it did when it was released in 1994.
Gary’s 2006 collaboration with Roger Powell (fossil poets) is an instrumental affair. Tanin and Powel co-wrote the 15 tracks here and it features Powell on a host of instruments (including Native American flute, accordion, flugelhorn, guitar, mandolin, piano, and organ), Greg Koch (guitar, bass, and effects), and Gary on synthesizers and arrangements. I could not help but compare many of these tracks to arrangements Alan Parsons recorded on projects like I, Robot. The sequencing and blend of electronics and guitar were also reminiscent of music I used to hear on one of my favorite National Public Radio (NPR) shows back in the day, Hearts of Space. I can’t say Gary and Roger were out to get their music on NPR, but fossil poets would certainly fit right in with this long running format.
It took a while to do these three CDs justice and after a couple of listening sessions, I had a couple of questions for Gary. I believe his insights into these projects add more layers to the process he went through birthing these three fine disks. The first things I asked were if it was his vocals on Otto (before I read the fine print on the album jacket) and what was his relationship to Maria Tanin (she was also listed in the credits): “Yes, I am the vocalist and Maria is my sister. She sang with me on the Otto album and singles. She could have had her own career, sang in some local bands, and then basically had to work for a living.”
Gary went on to elaborate about the lineup he used to record Sublime Nation: “As you can see on the liner notes it was an all star group of musicians I used for this. Same organist from “Otto” and lots of guest musicians. Jerry Harrison from TALKING HEADS played synth parts and co-produced the album with me. Jr. Brantley from ROOMFUL OF BLUES and the FABULOUS THUNDERBIRDS played on a song (he is a longtime friend) and T-Lavitz (DIXIE DREGS), and my good friend and collaborator on that and other albums was the hot shot guitarist GREG KOCH who will soon be doing the ALLMAN-BETTS band tour. So there was much help I got from A-list players. But it was all my material and I was the singer, so it really was my album. People started to think there was a band called SUBLIME NATION, and even made mistakes assuming we were the band SUBLIME.”
Gary wrapped up my interrogation with a couple of other gems about these records: “Remember it was just the dawn of the internet age. There were no web browsers of any note. Just versions of Mosaic which had been released in 1993 (when I was recording Sublime Nation). T’was a different world to get promotion and airplay. I am actually very happy that you took an interest in the two records (Otto & SN) – they are bookends of a sort . . . 1973 (Otto was released in 1975) and 1993 (Sublime Nation – released in 1994-95). SN did get picked up for distribution in Japan in 1995-96, so that was a first for me.” The 30th Anniversary re-issue of Otto was the version I got to listen to as my turntable is on the fritz, but it was a treat to hear the creative process Gary was going through back in the day.
We will be spinning the three discs previewed here over the next few weeks as well as albums by other bands and artists Gary has worked with since he began sending music our way. We are also eagerly awaiting the newest release by Peggy James which Gary has informed me is going to be her strongest record to date (and that is saying a lot because the previous albums we have had the chance to preview have been great). Thank you once again to Gary Tanin for filling the ‘Milwaukee Pipeline’ to WOAS-FM with such terrific music!
Top Piece Video: Sam Llanas Band – Dangerous Band from ten years ago – about the time Gary T started sending me music from artists he works with – Sammy’s work is some of the best from his post Bo Deans solo career!